Noah Gragson has started his new role as a Cup Series after an incredible run with Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports. But as he left the Xfinity series team, it seems like he left a huge hole in the team, taking away a good part of their crew. And there is no way Junior is going to be happy about this.
Unfortunately, this is terrible news for the fans too.
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After nearly winning the 2022 Xfinity Series Championship at Phoenix, Noah Gragson graduated from the junior leagues to go to the Cup Series and compete with the big guys. Although JR Motorsports lost one of their best drivers, Dale Jr. was pretty happy for his driver to finally make it to the big leagues. But it seems like after Jimmie Johnson joined hands with Petty GMS and made the Legacy Motor Club, they left a big dent in Gragson’s former team.
Legacy Motor Club‘s latest recruit revealed, “Well, I think that the one cool thing that we do have going into the season is we brought some guys over from JR Motorsports last year. We’ve had a lot of success last year and felt really comfortable with, you know, all of our group.”
Gragson further added by explaining who really made it happen as he said, “Having the opportunity with Legacy Motor Club to allow our guys to come over [from] JR Motorsports for allowing them to leave and come over for the Cup Series schedule this year. Just trying to keep things the same”
In fact, it wasn’t even a small dent in the Xfinity team. Oh no. They apparently took “A little over half of them” from Dale Jr.‘s crew. And there is no doubt that fans of the Hall of Famer are going to be livid.
Noah Gragson’s reason for poaching over half of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s crew is entirely a selfish one
Gragson revealed that going into the Cup Series will present a challenge, which is to be expected. He said, “It’s going to be tougher. You’re not gonna have as many good days, necessarily. And it’s gonna be hard to, in my opinion, to just keep that motivation and confidence come summer months.”
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This then further extends to his rather selfish reason for taking over half of his former team. Interestingly enough, his reason is entirely selfish and dependent on his comfort in the new role as he said, “It’s a long, 38-week stretch. So you know, having some familiar faces. Already having those relationships. That’s what I’m looking forward to most is not having to relearn a new team, a new group of people, for the most part.”
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Every driver has to be selfish if they want to get to the top and maintain it. But was Noah wrong to harm his own former owner like this?